Sad little Bunny
by nightofthelivingwhatsoever
Summary: Hiei never liked going barefoot, sometimes he just didn't have a choice.


Author: I do not own anything, sad to say.

Hiei padded bare foot across the hardwood floors to where his boots, cloak, and sword laid next to the open window. He had come back into Ningenkai on what Mukuro a "vacation." Kurama had been out of town for the day and always a stickler for home security; windows locked tight. Yusuke was also away, keeping up his noodle stand. Desperate for a hot shower to wash the traveler's grime from him, Hiei settled for the Kuwabara family home, the oaf wasn't there anyway, he occupied at school at this time of day, and doing quite well from the snippets he caught when he actually listened while Kurama tried to keep him in touch with the rest of his old team.

Freshly washed and fully clothed, Hiei sat himself down on the window sill and reached to pull on his boots, when he noticed something odd. Upon closer inspection, he realized the soles on his shoes were barely hanging on, plus there were holes all over them and they probably wouldn't hold up if Hiei decided to do some spontaneous puddle jumping. He hadn't paid much attention to the state of his shoes; in fact these pair of boots was the only one of three pairs he's had since he was a child, the others Kurama insisted he get, but they were long gone as well. Tossing them aside, he decided it was best that he wait until Kurama arrived home to find him some replacements; when they struck the ground, they completely broke apart, soles laying a few feet from the rest of them.

Hiei dozed there in the sunlight for the next two hours, waking only when he heard the front door open. His eyes remained closed, however, listening intently to the footfalls coming his way.

"Uh, hey, Hiei." Kuwabara's husky voice spurred up beside him.

"If you're wondering why I'm in your room, I'm awaiting Kurama's return." Sad to say, over the years, both Hiei and Kuwabara had grown a mutual respect for one another; therefore, they talked like 'big boys' as Kurama had put it.

"Oh, um, why didn't you just break in? Seems like you got a knack for breaking and entering already." Kuwabara kicked off his sneakers by the door and flopped down onto his bed.

"Last time I tried to break into Kurama's house, his Bonsai tree tried to "nom" on my leg." He nodded towards the half healed scrapes that could be seen right above his ankle.

"Nom?"

"That's what it sounded like when it was trying to eat me." A glare met uncontrollable laughter.

"What's with the sudden visit anyways? You normally don't show up this early." Kuwabara's eyes followed Hieis' to the pile of shoe-rubble lying on the floor.

"Need new shoes. Kurama gets them made for me, have to wait here 'till he gets back." As a child, he had never really had a decent pair of shoes; the rough terrain had torn up his feet pretty badly, so Hiei hadn't ever like going around bare foot unless he had to.

"Dude, you can have a pair of my old sneakers to walk around in for now until you get new ones. If you want them, that is; you won't have to be stuck up here all day." Kuwabara dug through to the bottom of his closet and dragged out an identical pair of shoes to the ones he had just discarded tied together by the laces. He pulled them apart and handed them to Hiei.

"Go on, try 'em out." Hiei turned them over in his hands, but just sat there, staring at them with an odd expression on his normally expressionless face.

Then the theoretical light bulb lit up in Kuwabara's head; he now understood why he never seen Hiei wear any other pair of shoes besides the kind he could either buckle or just pull on.

"Uh, Hiei? Do you know how to tie shoe laces?" Hiei shook his head slowly.

"That's okay. My mom died before I was old enough to wear shoes, Shizuru taught me." Kuwabara took the sneakers from him and helped him slip them into his feet, making sure they as least fit properly.

"Could you teach me?" It came out as barely a whisper, but they both heard it clearly. This was the first time Kuwabara had ever heard Hiei ask for somebody's help before, especially with something that seemed so simple.

"Yeah, of course I can! I'll teach you what my sis taught me when I was a kid." Kuwabara took the strings of the right sneaker in his hands and continued;

"My sister used a story to help me remember," Kuwabara noticed Hiei paying very close attention to him, "She would sit me down and say 'Kazuma, you are too damn old to be wear Velcro shoes, so you're going to learn how to tie regular shoes. She tried for weeks, but I couldn't remember any of the rhymes she came up with; so finally she made up a story about a bunny, and it stuck in my head. That's how I learned how to tie my shoes."

"Seriously? Bunnies? Couldn't you at least pretend you're not such a sissy?" Hiei scoffed.

"Do you want to learn or not?" Hiei nodded slightly, "Good, then pay attention."

"Once there was a rabbit that was very sad because his ears were so long and narrow that he stepped on them all the time. One day, a fairy landed on the bunny's head. She lifted the bunny's ears and crossed them over like an X." Kuwabara crossed the two strings over one another making an X, "She then put one of the ears under the X and pulled tight." He replicated the story.

"Next she made each long ear into a loop, and made another X like before. She put an ear under the X and pulled tight again, making a neat bow." Kuwabara criss crossed the shoe laces into a simple bow, "From then on, the bunny remembered how to tie up his ears so he would never step on them again, and he lived happily ever after, the end"

"That story just gave me diabetes." He smirked.

"Do you even know what that is? Kuwabara flopped back down on his bed.

"The tree I sleep in is right across from some God forsaken store called 'Best Buy' I am not totally uncultured." Hiei took the laces of the other shoe, trying his hand at the new skill.

For the next hour while he was doing his homework, Kuwabara could hear Hiei quietly repeating the story to himself, over and over again, until finally, it became quiet.

Kuwabara glanced over to the smaller figure sitting on the window sill, who was admiring his accomplishment.

"Did you finally get it?" He asked Hiei.

"You know, when Kurama orders another pair of shoes for me, I think I'll get something with laces."

OoOoOo

Author: This has been in my pile of not finished stories for a while. Dang, I started this one three months after my house burnt. Hope you like it, please review!


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